Gebruiker:Pepilogue/Kladblok

1899 Ceram Earthquake

On the 30th September, 1899, the island of Ceram was struck by an Ms = 7.8 earthquake, which was accompanied by a 10m tsunami. According to the Batavian Magnetic and Meteorological Observatory the shock occurred at 01:42.2 hours, Amahei local time.

Cause of the Earthquake and the Tsunamis

The Ceram earthquake is ranked among the tectonic quakes. The epicenter of the quake is shown in Figure 1. From there the quake spread in all directions. The most forceful spread went West and East, presumably through an old crack or tear in the earths crust. The 1899 Ceram earthquake had nothing to do with the 1898 Ambon earthquake. The first-mentioned took place along one of the many concentric cracks, the latter one took place along a radial crack. The earthquake was especially heavy in the Elpaputih-bay. Presumably because, as calculations suggest, the epicenter of the shock was located in the mountains west of the bay. These calculations were confirmed by visual inspection of the mountain rocks, which showed signs of fracture and breaking due to the quake.

Figure 1. A map that shows the epicenter of the Ceram Earthquake

Effects of the 1899 Seram Earthquake

The earthquake itself would not have been responsible for a lot of damage, were it not that the several parts of the shore broke off due to the quake and fell in to the sea, creating a severe tsunami that flooded the shores and the nearby located villages. The devastating tsunami took 3864 lives and swept away several villages completely. The areas that were struck hardest were all located on, or near, the Ceram fracture line and included Hatusua (Piru-bay area), Paulohy-Samasuru and Makariki (Elpaputih-bay area), Tehoru, Wolu and Laimu (Taluti-bay area).

Piru-bay area

Only the east-side suffered damage from a single-wave tsunami which destroyed the entire Hatusua village. A 2.4 meter wave, that went landinward 203 meters, swept away the village.

Elpaputih-bay area

Like at Piru-bay, the most severe damage was suffered on the east-side of the bay (Paulohy-Samasuru and Mani were the only west-side villages that were struck). Here, the shore broke off, creating a 9 meter wave flooding land inward for 170m. 2400 peoples lives were taken by the tsunami in this area.

Taluti-bay area

Here, the west-side of the bay suffered the greatest impact. At the Tehoru shore, a 'land-sliding' occurred, which created a flood that flooded the entire Tehoru village as well as parts of the nearby Wolu and Laimu villages.

Source in Context: About the Author of the Main Source

Rogier Verbeek was a Dutch geologist and natural scientist, located in the Dutch Indies due to his work for the Royal Dutch Geography Society. Therefore, his work is part of a broader scholarly effort to get a better understanding of the geography of the Dutch colonies. In that time, the focus was mainly on the micro-geography of certain Dutch areas. This case study tries to give an overview of the cause and impact of the 1899 earthquake and tsunami, indexing the specifics of the natural disaster for the entire Ceram area. However, Verbeeks presence in the Dutch Indies was not merely scholarly in nature. There was also an imperialistic incentive to have Dutch scholars located in Dutch colonies. As the first president of the RDGS, P.J. Veth stated, it was also a matter of pursuing and maintaining the Dutch glory, in a cultural-nationalistic sense. Dutch scholarly presence in the Indies was therefore not merely scientific, but also part of a colonial effort based on the idea of a 'Greater Holland'